📝8/10 = MORE ENJOYABLE!

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “THE CHURCH AND THE CROWN”

This story instantly transports you to 17th-century France and the time of King Louis and Queen Anne and growing unrest between the church and the crown, in what is essentially a pure historical take on The Three Musketeers.

It’s been a while since I listened to The Eye of the Scorpion, so I forgot that Erimem joined the TARDIS at the end of that story and makes her first trip with Peri and the Doctor in this one. But I love how she immediately hits it off with Peri and shows great fascination for this new time.

Part 1 is pretty busy with setting the scene and throwing in a lot of characters who discuss the current political situation. The standouts from the beginning are the historically accurate depiction of Cardinal Richelieu, who’s portrayed well by Michael Shallard, and King Louis XIII as played by Andrew Mackay.

I’ve always enjoyed dopperlgänger stories in Doctor Who (such as The Androids of Tara), and here we have another one: Peri looks exactly like Queen Anne, leading to plenty of confusion when the former gets entangled in an assassination plot against the latter. This allows for more time for Erimem to find her role as a companion as she joins the Doctor in his attempts to save Peri, while Nicola Bryant gets to pull an impressive double duty as both Peri and Queen Anne; she truly keeps both characters separate while recognisably voicing both of them.

Caroline Morris is a force to be reckoned with, and the energy and fierceness she gives Erimem brings to mind Louise Jameson and Leela. I quite enjoy how she often takes charge of a situation, much to the Doctor’s chagrin, and how well she interacts with the other characters.

Peter Davison is also in top form and sounds like he's enjoying himself.

The music, performances, and setting give The Church and the Crown a feel akin to Phantasmagoria mixed with The Marian Conspiracy, and I’m all for it.

Part 2 continues to twist and turn the political intrigue while feeding the tension between the King and the Cardinal; all the while Erimem tries to ease tensions, and the Doctor is being brutally interrogated. Part 2 is much the same, but the performances and the great dialogue keep it all going even if the story hardly moves forward.

The chaos and battle scenes are played out surprisingly effectively, and Part 4 brings the story to an exciting close, with a few final twists to boot and consistently strong performances and music.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• The Doctor says that his “arms are a bit longer," and I was thinking: are his arms too long (see: Wild Blue Yonder)?

The Church and the Crown is an enormously fun, fast paced romp.

I love it when Doctor Who wears its influences on its sleeve.  This adventure is 100% Doctor Who and the Three Musketeers.  Although it leans to a slightly more historically accurate account, particularly with the depiction of Cardinal Richelieu, it still revels in the trappings of swashbuckling romps, particularly, to my mind, the two film versions of The Three Musketeers – the Michael York/Oliver Reed one and the Charlie Sheen/Rebecca de Mornay one.  It’s a shame, though, that there doesn’t seem to even be a subtle reference to the greatest of Musketeer adaptations: Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds!

The TARDIS team of the Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem return for yet another adventure.  The regulars are all on top form and this is a very strong story for both Peri and Erimem.  Caroline Morris, in only her second story as Erimem, gets to show her leadership in battle and has a lot of fun playing up her royal background at King Louis’court.  The story, however, belongs to Nicola Bryant playing both Peri and her double, Queen Anne.  Doctor Who has a long tradition of doubles but it’s usually the Doctor rather than his companions.  Although this is audio, a strange medium to base a sizeable chunk of plot around physical appearance, it works brilliantly.  This is mainly due, I believe, to our familiarity nowadays with Nicola Bryant’s real accent.  Therefore we can easily imagine her in both roles even though her performances are quite different.

The plot actually boils down to some fairly basic politicial intrigue: the English Duke of Buckingham is planning to invade France.  But the focus of this story isn’t an intricate plot, it’s the Musketeer stylings.  The two Musketeers that hook up with the Doctor, and then Peri, are enormous fun as as are the brief scenes with Blind Maurice.  King Louis (portrayed by the same actor as Blind Maurice!) is also great.  In sharp contrast is Michael Shallard as Richelieu.  It could be argued that he, and Nicola Bryant as Anne to some extent, doesn’t fit into the play’s more humorous leanings.  However, the fact the play is historically more believable than something like Castle of Fear or The Kingmaker but not as serious as something like Son of the Dragon or The Council of Nicaea means it balances the two sides of its nature quite well.

Historically we have as mentioned, King Louis XIII, Queen Anne, Cardinal Richelieu, George Villiers (the 1st Duke of Buckingham) and Madame de Chevreuse (a Lady in Waiting to Queen Anne).  Buckingham’s plot to invade France, however, seems to be complete fiction – more akin to the film inspired stylings I have mentioned.

I haven’t a huge amount more to say about this story.  It’s fun and amusing.  It has some great scenes of tension, particularly any involving Richelieu and it has the regulars and guest cast all on top form.  Had I not waited nearly two weeks since listening to this to write the review I may have had a few more things to say.

The Monthly Adventures #038 - “The Church and the Crown" by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright

Cavan Scott and Mark Wright are a writing duo I find myself conflicted by. Sometimes, they’ll deliver some of my absolute favourite stories, like Project: Twilight, and sometimes they’ll deliver b-movie fluff like Project: Destiny. It really feels like a gamble going into any of their stories and very often they can vary wildly in tone. And I don’t think there’s a better example of this than the difference between the pair’s previous audio and this one. A truly grimy, grim and bloody tale about vampires in the back alleys of London is now followed up by a lightly comedic pure historical that ends up being one of the most fun Doctor Who-related experiences I’ve had in a while.

The TARDIS brings the crew to Paris in the reign of Louis XIII for Erimem’s first trip, where the trio find themselves once again wrapped up in a game of cloak and dagger, this one exacerbated by Peri’s striking resemblance to Queen Anne.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Considering Scott and Wright’s other outputs, the last thing I was expecting was a slight little comedy like this. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that comedy is The Church and the Crown’s biggest strength. It’s a very dry and realistic approach to humour that really works in the context of the pure historical and manages to brighten what is otherwise a somewhat uneventful script. Whilst there is nothing outwardly slapstick, the dialogue is enough to get a chuckle out of anyone and some lines are absolute gold, such as:

“BUCKINGHAM: You would dare to take on one of the finest swordsmen in England?

DOCTOR: Hasn't anybody told you? We're in France!”

, which was perhaps the best bit of dialogue I’ve heard in a Big Finish story as of now. But, for dialogue to be effective, the people delivering it too have to be somewhat interesting so how does our cast fair? Actually, really well. This is a set of genuinely fun characters with some incredible performances, from the two drunken and vain musketeers to the whiny, jealous Louis XIII. Nicola Bryant duel wields roles as both Peri and the endlessly brilliant Queen Anne (who is easily my favourite character from this stellar line up) and Erimem continues to grow on me. I wasn’t expecting her to blow me away when I listened to The Eye of the Scorpion but she’s so effortlessly cool and easily likeable here that I immediately took to her. With her now on my good side, I’m convinced there isn’t a single bad original companion in The Monthly Adventures. Overall, we have on our hands a really smart and witty script that is a delight to sit through, so where exactly does it go wrong?

I want to clarify that when I praise the script, I mean the characters, structure and flow of the whole thing, I am not referring to the story. And, as sad as it may be, I think the plot here is relatively lacking in substance. It’s one of those quaint little stories that isn’t too stand out but also isn’t outright bad in any way that just sort of leaves you lukewarm. The narrative is nothing if not derivative, boiling down to a series of captures and releases without much substance in between. Buckingham’s plot doesn’t thrill me, I’m not invested in the cloak and dagger of it all and I’m certainly not into all the second guessing and espionage our main characters have to take a part in. Plus, the central gimmick of the story is a companion doppelganger affair, a trope that’s been done to death by this point and fails to impress here; I like Peri and Queen Anne respectively but I find that the subplot of the former’s imprisonment goes nowhere and the whole thing feels pointless. In addition, where the story does try to say something original, or give a little more originality to itself, it fails. There’s a moment or two where the Doctor and Peri stop to consider whether or not they’re changing history. They eventually decide they’re not and have always been a part of events; this whole moment feels like a waste of time and clarification of a point that didn’t need to be made, as if Scott and Wright were trying to say something about the Doctor’s constant meddling with time but failed.

However, an underwhelming plot does not ruin an immensely fun story. Saved by the cast and comedy, The Church and the Crown is a bizarre departure in tone and subject for two often grimdark writers that I think succeeds brilliantly. Not one for originality but absolutely a fun time with a stellar cast, well worth a listen.

8/10

Pros:

+ Genuinely really funny, Scott and Wright have a surprising penchant for humour

+ Erimimem is very quickly growing on me as a favourite

+ Smart, intelligent and fun script

+ Great cast of likeable and despicable characters

Cons:

- The story feels overwhelmingly derivative

- The look-a-like plot feels like a retread of previous stories

- The attempt to address the Doctor’s meddlings with history is poorly done

06.08.2022

Fun. Erimem is quickly becoming one of my favorite companions. I sincerely hope her characterization doesn't get diluted later on like how that happened with Evelyn. No complex thoughts, but character banter and just general around-f**king makes it an easy 3.5/5

MR 038: The Church and the Crown

The Doctor faces his arch nemesis. A cat!

I love how the Fifth Doctor is the most easy to bully Doctor. He not only gets made fun of by Peri, he also gets bullied by a cat in the opening scene. I swear he'd be the Doctor to get shoved in a locker.

The story itself isn't all that interesting though to be honest. It's a pure historical, but I feel like pure historicals themselves aren't all that interesting. It usually comes down to a matter of either:

1. Interfering in history is bad in and of itself or;
2. Our interfering in history is actually A PART of history and so it's totally legit.

And both explanations are pretty dumb obviously. This story goes with option 2. The Doctor seems to think that his interfering to stop an invasion of France is legit because it was always "supposed to" happen. That his interference is actually a "part of history." Which is, unsatisfying as an explanation obviously. But more than that, the obvious question is why? Why is this history where you interfere to stop an invasion of France really "supposed to happen"? According to whom? The Time Lords? Destiny? God? Aren't you an atheist? Don't you disagree with the Time Lords trying to control all of history? Ridiculous. Peri even asks him why he's doing this as if she knows his reasons are complete bs.

Anyway, the actual story here is just that Peri looks like Queen Anne, ala Androids of Tara so she gets kidnapped because they think she's the queen, again ala Androids of Tara. Yadda yadda we've heard all this before. It's just a plot by an English guy to divide France between the Cardinal and the King to weaken it for invasion. Whatever, very exciting.

What's more interesting here is the character interactions. It's Erimem's first trip outside of her time and she's having a great time. She gets to pretend to be a princess and basically bluffs her way into the King's court, which is hilarious. Erimem and Peri prove that they can work together quite well and that they uplift the Fifth Doctor and make him more interesting. Peri gets to prove that she is absolutely the Fifth Doctor's best companion. Her personality just kind of leaps out at you with how quick witted and just fun she is. Way back when I first listened to these stories, the only time I found the Fifth Doctor himself interesting was when he was with Peri and Erimem and we definitely see why here.

The Doctor also gets to introduce the phrase "one for all and all for one" to the musketeers and he's very excited about it. Nicola Bryant also gets to play Queen Anne too which is nice since she looks like her, much like any other doppleganger episode. She's good in the part.

Otherwise it's pretty C tier coded, but there's some nice interactions between the principal cast. And Erimem gets properly invited into the TARDIS at last. As well as her cat who gets one last scene to bully the Doctor at the end.

This is a very enjoyable pure historical. I love the setting and the characters are interesting. The plot is solid, if not the most inventive thing ever.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Eye of the Scorpion

It seems France is the home of doppelgangers. First, the Abbot of Amboise (who looks like the First Doctor) and now Queen Anne of France (who supposedly looks identical to Peri). The momentum of the last story continues in this one with another thrilling historical, albeit without the presence of aliens this time. Paris is not as exotic a setting as before but it remains a welcome change from the English country villages that plague Doctor Who stories.

This adventure was especially fun with all sorts of conspiracies and plots and general 17th century antics. Erimem is proving to be a very interesting character, taking up her royal title again. I've now realised that she is the second princess to travel with the Fifth Doctor, after Nyssa. Erimem seems to use her royal heritage more often and it was especially entertaining here. Caroline Morris gives a great performance, especially when she addressed all the guards and soldiers to convince them to stop fighting against each other and rally against the invading English.

Nicola Bryant is also very good here as she gets to play two characters at once. Maybe it's just the accent but her Queen Anne is so different to her Peri that you'd almost think they were played by two different people. Peter Davison doesn't stand out as much in these stories as he does others, he seems to be taking a much more passive role but he's not without his moments here aswell. Overall, it's another entertaining historical with a unique setting showing great promise for this TARDIS team.

Next Story: No Place Like Home